Just remember - having a sender hooked up and working is good. Without it your speedometer won't read anything.

Except in your case, you should be doing this checking while your speedometer is off at the speedo shop, because hooking it up isn't going to make it work. It has fried internal components. That is a certainty given that the needle pegs.

Just an update on progress:
Walt you were right on the money. Speedo shop checked it out and said the integrated circuit board was fried. Model number SAY115X.
Unfortunately, they could not locate any locally and suggested buying another speedometer :(

Shouldn't be hard to get a used speedometer that will work. You could probably get one of the 85mph speedos for the cost of shipping, I'd suppose.